Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi-assisted phytoremediation of a lead-contaminated site Jerusa Schneider a,b, ⁎, Jochen Bundschuh c,d,e , Clístenes Williams Araújo do Nascimento b a School of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Urban Design – FEC Sanitation and Environment Dept. – DSA, State University of Campinas – Unicamp, P. O. Box 6143, 13083-889 Campinas (SP) Brazil b Agronomy Department, Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE), Recife, Pernambuco 52171-920, Brazil c Deputy Vice-Chancellor's Office (Research and Innovation), University of Southern Queensland, West Street, Toowoomba, 4350, QLD, Australia d Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences, University of Southern Queensland, West Street, Toowoomba, 4350, QLD, Australia e KTH-International Groundwater Arsenic Research Group, Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Science and Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 76, SE-10044 Stockholm, Sweden HIGHLIGHTS • AMF community diversity and activity depends on soil Pb contamination level. • Plants diversity in Pb contaminated soils is related to AMF colonization. • AMF colonization plays a role in the vegetation establishment on Pb-con- taminated sites. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT abstract article info Article history: Received 8 March 2016 Received in revised form 28 June 2016 Accepted 26 July 2016 Available online xxxx Editor: D. Barcelo Knowledge of the behavior of plant species associated with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and the ability of such plants to grow on metal-contaminated soils is important to phytoremediation. Here, we eval- uate the occurrence and diversity of AMF and plant species as well as their interactions in soil contaminated with lead (Pb) from the recycling of automotive batteries. The experimental area was divided into three lo- cations: a non-contaminated native area, a coarse rejects deposition area, and an area receiving particulate material from the chimneys during the Pb melting process. Thirty-nine AMF species from six families and 10 genera were identified. The Acaulospora and Glomus genera exhibited the highest occurrences both in the bulk (10 and 6) and in the rhizosphere soils (9 and 6). All of the herbaceous species presented mycorrhizal colonization. The highest Pb concentrations (mg kg -1 ) in roots and shoots, respectively, were observed in Vetiveria zizanoides (15,433 and 934), Pteris vitata (9343 and 865), Pteridim aquilinun (1433 and 733), and Ricinus communis (1106 and 625). The diversity of AMF seems to be related to the area heterogeneity; the structure communities of AMF are correlated with the soil Pb concentration. We found that plant diversity was significantly correlated with AMF diversity (r = 0.645; P N 0.05) in areas with high Pb soil Keywords: Biodiversity Root symbiosis Phytoremediation Environmental management Metal stress Soil contamination Science of the Total Environment 572 (2016) 86–97 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: jerusasch@gmail.com (J. Schneider). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.07.185 0048-9697/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Science of the Total Environment journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv